School project

M&M came home from school one day last week and told me that she had a project that she needed to do for her Language Arts class. It needed to be some type of visual arts display that had showed something about them - personality, likes, hobbies, etc. When she first described it to me it sounded like she had to do a poster, but then she elaborated and said it could be anything visual: diorama, collage, painting, etc. We talked about it for a minute and discussed what she could do for a poster and then I mentioned an idea that I had just thought of to her: It would be really cute to make a diorama of a miniature band. Then our discussion ended and we both thought about it some more and the next day M&M sounded excited about trying to create a diorama like I had mentioned. We discussed some ideas on what materials she could use to make the people and instruments.

On Monday I didn't have cub scouts so I was able to use that time to help her find a box to use and then to pull out some of my craft materials. Then on Tuesday she had more time to work on it because her soccer practice was cancelled due to the rain. The project was due this morning and here are some pictures of the finished project:
DH and I think M&M did an awesome job!! And the work was 99% her own. I helped a little here and there, but mostly just with suggestions on how to do something or to add something here and there. She made all of the people and instruments herself out of pipe cleaners and pom pom balls and a couple pieces of wire and toothpick here and there. She used pom pom balls as the chairs and covered some cardboard with black paper to make a podium for the conductor. At first she wanted to do multiple instruments of each kind but I recommended to her that she just do one of each at first and then if she had time and the space for more to do it then. M&M ended up making a flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, french horn, trombone, tuba, bass drum, and of course a bassoon! She was very particular with some of the details and spent some time during band class noticing how some of the instruments were put together and how they were played.

It was neat seeing M&M's creativity and dedication to completing this project. She definitely could have taken the easy way out and just done a poster or collage like most of her other classmates that she had talked to about the project. She was so excited and pleased with the finished project and she was even in bed by 10:00 last night!

Close-up of the bassoon player